Why Toyota do this? Nav screen sucks

Thank goodness opinions are like buttholes, everyone has one and they are all different.

 

Toyotas will never have the best up to date technology. However their powertrain dependability is always present for the most part.

 

Just saw this thread and thought "Wait - what? Is it Friday already?"

 

I know Toyota can make a decent one, they just choose not to because tacomas will sell in spite of it.

 

Sounds like a critical meltdown

 

Brings up a point; does any OEM have a good head unit anymore (connects reliably, not laggy, decent UI)?

Pains me to say it but the one in my Tacoma is basically the best of any newer car I have owned (and they all fail miserably in every category against a $45 single DIN deck I have in an old vehicle). I just assumed from go it was going to be terrible but it hasn’t been nearly as annoying as our Outback, and the one in my ‘18 Crosstrek was so bad I literally sold the car after 10 months because it was driving me up the wall (the AWD is great but unfortunately this was only figuratively; or it may have ended differently).

 

I think we're probably a few years away from manufacturers just installing a blank screen that will sync to whatever your phone is doing. The days of manufacturer engineered nav is over. It's never going to work as good as Google maps so why try?

 

I ended up renting a fairly new Tahoe a few weeks ago, that one worked pretty good. The screen was good and the 360 view worked well.


All very important because that thing had otherwise horrible visibility.

 

For reasons that I don't understand, Toyota put a lot of money and effort into engineering an incredible machine when they designed the 3rd gens, then threw in a bunch of half-assed electronics as though they were little more than an afterthought.

Automatic headlights? Useless.
Automatic high beams? Useless
Lane departure warning? Useless.
Automatic dimming mirror? Useless.
Navigation system? Useless.
Wireless phone charger? Useless.

About the only electronic feature that actually works the way I expect it to is the radar cruise control, and I rarely use cruise control since most of my highway driving is in the mountains & foothills.

 

I once had a brand new Ford Fiesta as a rental circa 2017 and it had a full T9 hard button keypad on the dash.

Sometimes you need to be grateful for what you don’t have.

 

I use a Garmin dedicated GPS unit that I purchased 2016/2017-ish. Even THAT old the screen is far superior, the data presented is more useful. When it fails I will buy another Garmin dedicated GPS. If nothing else, it can be carried outside of the vehicle in case I have no other navigational aids like phone-based GPS.

 

The Acura ‘06 nav made every other nav look great. Primary reason I switched to Toyota.
On the other hand, the stereo was fantastic.

 

There are two main reasons I like my built-in nav. It saves my phone on longer trips and it is great for when I don't have cell service and need to input a route.

But for shorter trips, I'll use Google on my phone since that is easier and has traffic updates.

 

The nav screen is the thing that sucks the least about the nav we paid WAY too much for. I'm debating if I should let you find out for yourself just how shitty this nav system is or if I should give a few examples. It's up to you. Let me know.

I had no way to test the nav when I test drove one of the tacos because it didn't have it. I probably wouldn't have tested it anyway because there was no way I could have suspected it would suck this much.

 

I thought I would hate all those gadgets but I actually like some of them. I don't use the navigation as I hardly drive anywhere. I am used to using google anyway. I like the lane departure cuz it tells my wife she is going off the road so I don't have to twenty times in one trip.

 

The lane departure warning does work really well. The problem is that it's so quiet that I can't hear it unless the windows are rolled up, and the radio is turned off, which is never.

It either needs to be A LOT louder (or have an adjustable volume) so that those of us with raging tinnitus can hear it, or have an option to vibrate the seat or steering wheel, like in my friend's Jeep.

The automatic headlights in the Canadian models can't be turned off (due to Canadian legislation), and they activate the moment the key is turned to the ON, or ACC position, rather than waiting until the park brake is released. It's very problematic in situations where you need the engine, or even just the radio on, but the headlights off, such as at drive-in movies, camping, or night sky photography.

The automatic high beams shut off every time I pass a sign bigger than a speed limit sign. They work fine on a back country road, or a secondary highway, but on something like the Trans Canada, or an American interstate, they're just constantly flickering on and off.

 

If by up to date you mean 30 years ago, I would agree. My 2014 Nissan was literally (and I mean literally) a million times better than my 2023 Tacoma in the tech/multimedia/nav/sound departments.

 

That's what you get for buying the Sport!!!!

 

I hear ya!

We used the dongle, Apple CarPlay and Google Maps on a recent trip to Toronto. Once we got into Canada is where it became tricky since we had to get international roaming.